And Reading sang “Robin van Persie…is laughing at this”

Well fuck me green! Now that’s what I call a game. It was the most fun I’ve had with my clothes off. (Don’t ask.)

But the thing of it is…I didn’t see it. I tried a couple of shitty streams, and then decided, “Fuck it! I’ll follow you bastards on my TL.” And what a depressing bunch of fuckers you are. No offense meant.

Actually, a few observations on you guys on Twitter:
1. You are a foul-mouthed bunch and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves
2. You have the attention span of a mosquito
3. You have the attention span of a heroin addict
4. When something major happens you are all highly unoriginal and tweet the same thing eg “Goooooaaalllll” or ” Theeeeooooo” 1,000 times
5. You are fickle
6. Your tweets are largely unhelpful, confusing, depressing, but are a wild trippy ride of the dramatic
7. It’s still a great way to “watch” a game!

But you are a depressing bunch. Now don’t get me wrong. Going down 4 goals in a row will depress the best of us. I had many of the same emotions coursing through my own veins. But I am incapable of acting on these emotions. I just am. I cannot say the words. I cannot type the letters. My fingers freeze. Not in my nature. But I get it. I really do. It’s miserable going 1, 2, 3, 4 goals down.

Now I have no issue with those who expressed their frustration and their concerns with the team. It’s part of what Twitter’s about. 1 game either way doesn’t make you right and it doesn’t make you wrong. And if you see what you believe are problems we can fix, who is anyone to tell you to shut up. You love this team as much as the next supporter. If you’re unhappy about the team selection, or the formation, or the preparation, or the direction of the club, or the manager, that’s your right as a supporter.

But let me tell me what REALLY PISSES ME OFF. What REALLY PISSES ME OFF is people who accuse our players of not caring, of not trying, of not being motivated. Oooooh. That drives me effing nuts. If they see our players looking lost on the pitch, they assume mental weakness. If they see sloppy play they assume and they state that the players just don’t care. They don’t seem motivated. The players have an issue with attitude and desire.
You of course have a degree in sports psychology and have competed at the highest level of world football in your youth. Oh. You haven’t. Well…don’t let that stop you calling our team a bunch of quitters.
And I have heard it often before. Like the Milan 0-4 game. It’s just a lazy analysis. Sure, they travelled all that way to play at the San Siro, in the CL round of 16 and when they got there, they just didn’t care. They didn’t have desire.
Or the Norwich game. Pampered poodles taking a plane. Fuckers should have walked there. It’s indicative of something or other. I swear it is.
Of course there is an alternate explanation as to why a team plays shit in the 1st half and well in the 2nd. Perhaps an XI that has never played together in a competitive match might take a little time to gel. That’s why they invented pre-season because training together doesn’t cut it. This team might even need some tweaks to the lineup and formation after 45 minutes. It might need some re-thinking of its tactics. Then the same group of players come out in the 2nd half and start to gel with a new setup, 4-1-5, and “decide” they care about the game where they were apparently previously passionless automatons. And they score 6 goals on the other side of half time.
You can’t show your passion and desire when the system isn’t working and the players don’t know how to play with each other, as it was against Reading. All that would give you is 11 headless chickens.

Wenger on whether he thought Arsenal could come back:
“Yes. At 4-1, I thought yes. In the second half we played 4-2-4, basically 4-1-5 because Eisfeld is an offensive midfielder. We created many chances and from then on, I always had hope we could come back.”
If you think that Wenger spent half time shouting at the team, he didn’t. He needed to get the players playing together. He needed to change the formation. There was much work to be done. He did remind them of the Pride in the shirt they were wearing. But Pride and passion with out a plan that works gives you 11 headless chickens. The plan was changed. The new plan worked. And we changed some players. We brought on Eisfeld and Giroud, and hey presto! They could now express their passion through how they played.
What an amazing performance. There was no quit in this team. Written off by supporters and media and opposition fans alike.

But, Oooh. That was delicious. What a roller coaster. And just when it looked like Arsenal had caught and past Reading, then Reading scores to equalize at 5-5, and we all thought “Jesus, we’re going to lose this on penalties, aren’t we?” But not this team. Not these boys. They scored another 2 goals! They scored 4 goals in added time. 4!
A hat trick-ish for Theo. A brace for Chamakh! Yes, I know! Chamakh.
Can you imagine what the lads back at Arsenal were thinking. Ox, Wilshere, all of them. They must have been going fucking mental. Watch that video of Ox and Frimpong playing Fifa 13 and see how amped they get about competing on a crappy video game on Ox TV. Now imagine how amped they were after seeing their team, wearing their shirts, come back from 4 goals down against a Premiership team playing at home in front of an excited crowd and put 7 goals past the enemy. They must have gone effing ape shit!

Arsene Wenger:
on the Away Supporters
“I didn’t feel great. I just thought ‘what can I do about that?’ I started to think about my half-time speech. It was not difficult to find an inspiration at half time, because there was enough there to talk about. Overall, I just felt sorry for our fans because at 2-0, they stayed behind the team. At 3-0, they stayed behind the team. At 4-0, they stayed behind the team. I would like to give them credit tonight.”
On the Away Supporters who left at 4-0.
“Yes. I give them less credit. The big part of the fans stayed behind the team and I’m happy we paid them back in the second half. The ones who left were a bunch of pussies.” (I added that last sentence.)
Can you imagine those few supporters who left at 0-4 finding out they missed one of the greatest fight-backs in Arsenal history. Deliciously karmic. And if you think the players don’t know about this, you’re wrong:

@kylebartley22 I bet the #arsenal fans that left early doors feel a bit silly now……..

It was fun tracking Henry Winter’s timeline for The Telegraph. He definitely captured something:

@henrywinter: #afc: Martinez; Jenkinson, Djourou, Koscielny, Miquel; Gnabry, Frimpong, Coquelin; Walcott, Chamakh, Arshavin. Djourou is captain
@henrywinter: #readingfc lead from a good break….Hunt to Robson-Kanu, good cross, Roberts close-range finish
@henrywinter: #readingfc make it 2-0, then 3-0. #afc being ripped apart down the flanks….Gunter cross, own goal by Koscielny. Then Leigertwood
@henrywinter: #readingfc fans serenading #afc fans with: “Robin van Persie…is laughing at this” and “you’re getting thumped on the telly”
@henrywinter: 4-0. #readingfc again too good down the flanks, #afc again too weak. McCleary cross, Hunt header. Some Arsenal fans leaving. 39
@henrywinter: #afc fans all chanting: “We want our money back”, then “We want our Arsenal back” #angry
@henrywinter: Walcott makes it 4-1 ht, run through middle, good finish over gk. Otherwise, #afc embarrassing. Good turn-out of away fans deserve better
@henrywinter: #afc could do worse than get the watching Tony Adams and Martin Keown in at centre-back for the second half – and they are 46
@henrywinter: #readingfc terrific. Leigertwood outstanding in middle. Robson-Kanu, McCleary, Gunter, Shorey good down flanks. Roberts/Hunt movement/goals
@henrywinter: Interesting, very interesting: 4-2 Giroud
@henrywinter: Very, very interesting…Koscielny makes it 4-3
@henrywinter: 4-4
@henrywinter: Amusing….Giroud and Coquelin threw their shirts into crowd thinking game was over. Had to request them back for extra time!
@henrywinter: Fantastic fight-back by #afc. Walcott excellent, Giroud important. Eisfeld looks promising in cm.
@henrywinter: #afc lead 5-4. Chamakh. Bonkers game.
@henrywinter: #afc fans now singing about going to Wembley and chanting “jump up if you’re 5-4 up” and “sit down if you’re 5-4 down”
@henrywinter: 5-5.
@henrywinter: 6-5. Walcott. Utterly bonkers game
@henrywinter: 7-5. Chamakh
@henrywinter: It is all over now…..Giroud throws shirt to #afc fans. Epic night of cup football here. The Mad Stad lives up to its nickname

And then there was one of our own @randomanomaly at the match

@randomanomaly: Hahahahahaha
@randomanomaly: Btw, we will come back. Guaranteed.
@randomanomaly: 4 0 is a dangerous score…
@randomanomaly: Still saying we come back to 4 4, but we will lose 5 4 now. Oh we scored.
@randomanomaly: Boos still quite loud. Doesn’t help that I am stuck next to two MASSIVE cunts.
@SavageGooner: Someone get me some fucking bin bags.
@randomanomaly: Oh my fucking god. Not gone that mental for some time.
@randomanomaly: Oh my fucking god. Best game I’ve ever seen…
@randomanomaly: What’s more surprisng, a 7 5 scoreline or chamakh scoring from outside the box…
@JoshJJames78: Now the adrenaline has worn off I realise I injured my knee quite badly celebrating the equaliser.
@randomanomaly: @JoshJJames78 haha, so did I. Both of them killing me, worth it!
@randomanomaly: Finally back. Battered knees, late-running trains, huge fan backlog outside the ground… all worth it for the best game I’ve ever seen.
@ibycu2187: @randomanomaly YOUR PREDICTION WAS RIGHT
@randomanomaly: @ibycu2187 I bet against myself though the tweet after, dunno why I did that. The quality was always there, so pleased – what a night.

Oxlade-Chamberlain’s tweets from the game:

@Alex_OxChambo COME ON!!!!
@Alex_OxChambo AHHHHHHHHHHH
@Alex_OxChambo YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Alex_OxChambo OMGGGGG!!!!!
@Alex_OxChambo I’m shaking i’m buzzin zoo much!!!
@Alex_OxChambo Chamakh you beautyyyyyyy!!!!!!
@Alex_OxChambo THEOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! The best thing i have ever seen! Wowwwwwwww!!! #NeverSayNever
@Alex_OxChambo Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
@Alex_OxChambo So proud of all the boys after that! Its too much for me to handle right now,time for bed, i will try get my head round it in the morning!!!

forgot to say, also agree with the point you make about this being a new team that had to gel and to be tweaked. When the fourth goal went in, I was thinking to myself it would be such a pity if they can’t somehow turn this around because these individuals are good enough to forge a really good second 11 out of, and if they go out of the competition now, they won’t get another chance to play together.

Mate awesome blog. I was there last night and it was simply incredible. The knobs who left early were the same knobs trying to start chants totally abusing the players. That’s just not on. Fine, if you think the players are shit, or the manager is shit, or the board are shit, that’s your opinion. But for 90minutes (or 120), when there are 11 men in AFC shirts, you get behind the team, end of

Mate awesome blog. I was there last night and it was simply incredible. The knobs who left early were the same knobs trying to start chants totally abusing the players. That’s just not on. Fine, if you think the players are shit, or the manager is shit, or the board are shit, that’s your opinion. But for 90minutes (or 120), when there are 11 men in AFC shirts, you get behind the team, end of